Le cheval en vue de l’écurie

I have only two and a half weeks left in Paris.

It’s a strange realization. I feel like I just got over jetlag. And now that I’m almost done, my mental attitude is way better than it was at the beginning. It feels almost easy to live here. I know where to buy groceries, I can stay more-or-less on top of my schoolwork, I can take the métro without blinking. It’s like what one of my farmer bosses told me over the summer, watching my pace towards the last weeding job of the day becoming a fast clip when I realized I only had 15 minutes left in my workday: “it’s the horse in sight of the stable.” Once you can see where you’re going, can see home, you pick up the pace. Things get rosy.

But I’m also running out of time. As such, I’m trying to keep my vacation-y attitude in Paris and go see as many things as I can slash want to. Yesterday was a visit to the anglophone bookstores by St. Michel. First, Abbey Books, which is Canadian and gives you free maple-syrup coffee (no joke).

I couldn’t help it! The guy was so nice! So what if it was (gasp) 25 euros? I am genuinely interested in the history of Quebec, okay?

I also hit up the famous and slightly touristy Shakespeare and Co., just to say I did. It’s pretty neat on the inside, cozy and full of many shelves. They have an old typewriter where you can tap away at your novel* if you’re of that persuasion, and a ton of writer’s groups meet there, presumably to drink coffee and wine and whine. Me, I sat in a wicker rocking chair and read L’avenir de la science for class. Not a bad way to pass the afternoon.

*Yeah, I kind of laissed mine tomber. Something had to give! I’m only human!